The Mirror of fine Art
“What a live I’ve had! What a thriller! I am pretty sure that even da Vinci’s “Lady with an ermine” would want to switch places with me. You can’t count that for much, after all, she is actually a lady hugging a rat, but it is something, it should be something. Oh, who am I trying to fool? I’ve spent an eternity in this dark ugly backstreet gallery. And that is not the worst. Every time someone does enter I feel like a kitty waiting for adoption. I just hope that some idiot with a ten-digit bank account would finally buy me and put me in a spacious well-lit room across a window with a splendid vista of a beautiful city. A dust protector and a temperature and humidity controller would be nice, too.”, said the painting to itself. It actually said a lot more, it was a very clever and talkative painting, in fact, it was so clever that it possessed the processing power of a supercomputer and could probably prove Fermat’s last theorem in a nanosecond, and so talkative that it could easily deliver a speech that would make Fidel Castro look like a shy schoolboy. As a matter of fact if the painting had access to one of those fancy speech synthesizer with a strong Yankee accent, and hence the ability to communicate it would probably be able to steer human civilization in a much better direction than its political leaders. Sadly, all this happening would be highly unlikely. I leave it to you to decide if it was a miracle of God or some sick trick of fate, but actually the very next thing that happened was even less likely. A man entered the gallery, passed quickly the other paintings in the exhibition and suddenly came to a sharp halt in front of our super clever and hyper talkative painting.
“Interested in that one, ah, aren’t you. I can see already that you are a man of fine taste! “ the gallery owner had popped out of nowhere.
“Well,..”
“A pretty talented lad, that author. And he has one of those strange artistic names on which alone you could count to make you a great artist. Dorian Grey. Come on, let us say it together just so that you can feel the power of the name. Dorian Grey!”
“Dori…”
“You have seen his works exhibited in the Louvre , I suppose . Quite extraordinary sketches, I should say. Well, I wouldn’t like to steal more of your precious time sir. Let’s cut the long story short! Will it be cash or credit card?”
“I don’t want it” said the man.
“Sure, do you want me to wrap it up for you?”
“I don’t want it” said the man again.
“What do you mean you don’t want it? I have children to feed, ok, ok, this painting is worth three million, but I will make you a discount, just for you it will be two million. How about that? ... Oh, you want to ruin me! Ok, then you can have half of it for a million, and this is my final offer. You cannot say no to that, can you! …Ok, please don’t leave! What is your favorite color; I will have Dorian redo it for you adding more of it!”
“ I came in to ask where the closest grocery store is.”
“Oh, please be gone!”
The man left and the owner said to himself “I just hate these cheap b*****ds, who come in here and don’t have a clue to what the price of fine art is!”
“Ha, and if you have a clue to what the price of being fine art is ,then I am, I am a postcard,” the painting laughed bitterly. It had endured the whole conversation and stood still hanging on the wall. It was in a bad mood. You see, if one doesn’t take into consideration its monstrous intellect it was not quite unlike a human being. It had never seen what was drawn on it, and it had to heavily rely on the perception of others to guess if it was a beautiful painting or not. Neither the author, nor the owner of the gallery, nor the painting itself were aware but, every time when someone was unimpressed by the painting’s look, a fresh new shade of dark grey appeared among its beautiful colours.
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The Mirror of Fine Art
ReplyDeleteReview by Zlatina
The first thought that springs to mind, naturally, is the obvious and most likely deliberate allusion to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.
The picture in this case has not only unusual, mystical powers, but also an exceptional intellect (“… it possessed the processing power of a supercomputer and could probably prove Fermat’s last theorem in a nanosecond, and so talkative that it could easily deliver a speech that would make Fidel Castro look like a shy schoolboy.”),a sensitive soul (it longs for a “spacious well-lit room across a window with a splendid vista of a beautiful city”), and a practical nature too (“A dust protector and a temperature and humidity controller would be nice, too.”)
I particularly enjoyed reading the thoughts of the painting. This is where the substance of the story is. It poses some rather serious questions about life, art and everything else in a very subtle way. The fact that these views are expressed from the point of view of a painting make them sound more universal and less subjective (since one doesn’t normally have the notion of objects being subjective), which is a very nice way to express one’s ideas without attaching a name tag to them.
The dialogue in the story, however, failed to convince me much, actually not at all. Perhaps the author meant to express his view of people who sell/deal with art? Or it was there purely for fun’s sake? Either way, it didn’t work for me. It was too much in-your-face compared to the rest of the story and the subject matter altogether. It should be touched upon, and if done right, honestly, I’ll love this story madly!!
Overall: this story says so much in such an economical way – I’m impressed.
Review of Kiril’s “The Mirror of Fine Art”
ReplyDeleteBy Maria
To start with, I have to make the serious warning that Kiril’s story is one that does not work for me on any level. It is loosely built, constructed of unrelated and totally uninteresting depictions, dialogues and ..monologues; the characters are unfounded, lacking depth and where there are some attempts at characterizations they just dump pile after pile of boredom and mediocrity onto the poor reader, throwing desperate ropes of similes between the world of the story and the contemporary world of art (Da Vinci’s “Lady with an ermine”), science (Fermat’s last theorem), politics (Fidel Castro), and literature(Dorian GrAy), telling us a lot about the sentiments of the (supposedly) omniscient narrator and little about the story itself. To make it even worse, it is full of discrepancies between the world it builds and the “real life”, it poses to be a part of, practically all throughout. Plus it is a small and neat disaster of style.
Ok…pause…breathe...and let’s take it one by one.
First, when you decide to start with a monologue of a “super clever and hyper talkative painting” make it SOUND clever and talkative, not boring, whining and overly capricious. The mere stating of some quality or another won’t make the reader believe your character really possesses that quality - on the contrary, it will distract, disappoint and aggravate (see this is one of the main reasons mine is such an angry review)…because no reader would like to be treated as a small, incompetent child. Not only that but in the process it manages to turn your perfectly wonderful omniscient narrator into some misty character that puzzles us with his/her political beliefs: “it would probably be able to steer human civilization in a much better direction than its political leaders” and all of a sudden we have an omniscient narrator with vivid personality which really is kind of creepy. See, it’s ok if the narrator has an opinion but NOT a personality OUTSIDE of the story’s narrative. But enough for the narrator and his faults.
Let’s return again to the individual characters, their voices and place in the story and let’s assume we’ve managed to swallow the narrator’s condescending tone. What we seem to find in the characters’ speech, however, comes even more drenched in hateful disrespect: “some idiot with a ten-digit bank account would finally buy me”, “Come on, let us say it together just so that you can feel the power of the name”, “I just hate these cheap b*****ds” and so on. I’ll leave the question of why is it a bad thing to have arrogant and absolutely unredeemable characters that are in constant argument all over your story open… There is, in fact, just one sentence that made me open up to the whole text for a short moment just at the end and I have to admit, it is a good image “it had to heavily rely on the perception of others to guess if it was a beautiful painting or not… a fresh new shade of dark grey appeared among its beautiful colours”, but still, it just hangs there, like a lonely picture in an empty gallery totally unrelated to the other 700 and something words.
And lastly - so many contradictions! Just a few examples: “I feel like a kitty waiting for adoption” and “this dark ugly backstreet gallery” opposed to “You have seen his works exhibited in the Louvre”; the painting being” worth three million” but… “I will make you a discount” and “do you want me to wrap it up for you”; the owner of the gallery being “a fine art” man and at the same time - “I have children to feed”.
It all points to absurdity, but a bitter, sad and to be fair a very confusing kind of absurdity; one with no purpose, no purpose at all, as if aiming to point to the purposelessness of life itself and leave the reader crushed, sad and feeling very, very small…
The Mirror of fine Art Review
ReplyDeleteby Mad
This intriguing and light story sees art as a natural extension to its artist, rather than as some great act of an outstanding persona and it claims that art is about communication, but not a cause in itself. I definitely side with the author here.
The idea that a piece of art (or an artist) needs a “mirror” to become what it actually is puts forward the communicative nature of art.
In the opening lines we can witness the personified piece of art suffering the not-so-uncommon lordliness among people dealing with the arts, the insecurity and even self-pity working all at a time in an arts persona.
Further in the paragraph, an impressive claim about art is made: “…it could easily deliver a speech that would make Fidel Castro look like a shy schoolboy. As a matter of fact…it would probably be able to steer human civilization in a much better direction than its political leaders”. The painting-character and art in general are shown as more powerful than the supporting pillars of human civilization: politics, science, and technology in that it can get to people in “nanoseconds”, because it works on the level of the feelings.
The dialogue in the second part of the story reveals how tastes can be created by people “of fine taste”, with “strange artistic names”, who believe they have the right “clue to what the price of fine art is”.